| By Joan Dempsey,on January 26th,2012 
What follows is an excerpt from a longer article: “Time Management, Learning Events, and Culture,” by Jenny Giezendanner, Certified Dialogue Education Practitioner. The article is free and you can download it here to read the rest.
Rubber time in Indonesia, mañana in Latin America, the Pünktlichkeit of the Germanic –each characterizes a particular perception of time in its respective culture. Because many of us regularly interact in more than one cultural context, this variation in time consciousness creates a significant challenge when we teach adults. Starting and finishing sessions throughout a class day on time – as defined by local perceptions of time – is an important means of acknowledging the value of local cultural norms and thus of demonstrating respect. But how can we do that in appropriate, sensitive, and respectful ways in the variety of cultures in which we work? How can we possibly define guidelines for time management with such a wide diversity confronting us? R-E-S-P-E-C-T Perhaps the greatest principle guiding Dialogue Education is respect. In any given teaching context we aim to demonstrate respect to all participants. To achieve this, however, requires doing our homework and finding out, ahead of time and then continuing through our sojourn in that culture, what kind of time-consciousness and what kind of time constraints most affect our learners in that context. This is very much part of the standard pre-event practical research or Learning Needs and Resources Assessment that we do about our learners. We ask our contacts about arrangements and expectations regarding the event, study any articles or information written about that cultural context, and, once we’re on-site, we observe how people manage time locally. The opportunity to make such observation is one of the great benefits of arriving at the teaching site several days in advance of the actual event. Who has stories about facilitating time in cultures other than your own? *** In related news, we’re hosting a brand new, two-day course called The Art of Facilitation in Raleigh, NC on March 8 & 9. If you or a colleague could stand to enhance your facilitation skills, do consider joining us! It’s also a great refresher if it’s been awhile since you studied Dialogue Education, and a great introduction to DE for those who’ve not experienced it before. People are signing up so check it out soon! *** By Joan Dempsey,on January 24th,2012 
Next week the GLP partners and staff convene in Raleigh, North Carolina for our semi-annual retreat. One of the things that’s very common at our gatherings are “walk and talk” meetings during our extended lunch hours. Something about talking while walking jogs (ha ha) the brain in ways that talking while sitting does not, and it’s a great facilitation tool to use to engage your learners, especially when energy levels are low. Apparently the serotonin levels in your brain are elevated when you walk so you feel happier, a good thing for learning. There are even some therapists who are using the walk and talk method rather than the proverbial couch. Kate Hays, PhD, author of Working It Out: Using Exercise in Psychotherapy “cites three key reasons for combining exercise and therapy: - It encourages a patient to be more physically active for mental and physical reasons.
- It helps a patient get “unstuck”when confronting difficult issues.
- It spurs creative,deeper ways of thinking often released by mood-improving physical activity.”
Turns out that the “walk and talk” really originated as a handy story-telling technique for television and the big screen. Maybe that’s part of why we enjoy it so much; we can feel as important as film characters (like some of my favorites on The West Wing, where they’re always walking and talking). “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard
As a facilitator, think about using the Walk and Talk when energy is low, you need to change spaces, or your learning design has involved a lot of previous sitting. Give clear instructions about what to talk about for a specific amount of time. And hey, while you’re designing your learning event, if you’re stuck on something and can’t figure it out, take a break and take a walk. Chances are good you’ll jog your brain into some great new thinking. What kinds of walk and talk tasks have you used? (And if you’d like to learn even more great facilitation ideas, consider joining us for The Art of Facilitation on March 8 & 9 in Raleigh, North Carolina.) By Joan Dempsey,on January 17th,2012 
“Promptitude is not only a duty, but is also a part of good manners; it is favorable to fortune, reputation, influence, and usefulness; a little attention and energy will form the habit, so as to make it easy and delightful.” ~ Charles Simmons We’ve all done it: started meetings late; allowed workshops to go beyond stated end times; and come back five minutes late from breaks. This is a pet peeve, I must admit. I’m almost always on time (or early), and it drives me crazy when others are not. It feels disrespectful to me. And yet I also understand that there are people out there for whom it isn’t a simple thing to be on time, and some for whom being chronically late is a psychological problem. Still, if you’re teaching, being on time is critically important. “The consequences of being chronically late run deeper than many people realize, according to psychologist Linda Sapadin, PhD, author of Master Your Fears. ‘You’re creating a reputation for yourself, and it’s not the best reputation to be establishing. People feel they can’t trust you or rely on you, so it impacts relationships. It also impacts self-esteem.’” For those of us who practice Dialogue Education, we know that a breach of trust can impact a learner’s feelings of respect and safety, two critical principles for effective learning. So what can you do to learn to be on time, especially if you’re chronically late? Here are some helpful tips for those who are late in many areas of their lives. And if you’d like to practice being on time (along with a lot of other important facilitation skills!), and see good time management modeled, we’ll be doing both in our brand new 2-day Art of Facilitation course on March 8 & 9 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Here’s a sneak preview of two tips on time management you’ll get during this course: TIP #1: The ‘parking lot’ technique can help people stay on topic and on time – without losing valuable ideas, questions, or concerns which are peripheral to the current content. By ‘parking’ them temporarily on a highly visible flip chart, you communicate the importance of these items and your commitment to addressing them . . . but not right now. You may choose to address them in a future task, in private or in the course report. TIP #2: Running out of time at the end of a workshop is a common problem for many facilitators. Even if you have a tried-and-tested workshop design, you can get into trouble without a clear time management strategy. Some ways to do this include: - set the time out loud for each working task;
- have a clock in sight at all times;and
- write the timing for each task in your manual and try to stick to it (practice in advance).
And here are some other tips: - strip content out of your learning event – having too much WHAT for the WHEN (or too much content for the allotted time) is a common problem, even among people skilled at Dialogue Education;
- get in the habit of routine time checks throughout your learning event;
- if technology is involved, start 10-15 minutes early to make sure the technology works – be transparent that this is why you’re starting early;
- if you’re on time and others are not, always be a model: start on time, end on time, show up when you’re supposed to;
- don’t be afraid to end something early.
As Shakespeare said, “better three hours too soon than one minute too late.” What has your experience been with punctuality? Leave your comment below. By JANE VELLA,on December 20th,2011  Henri Nouwen was a man of faith who once wrote this about the winter solstice (Advent):
“This time of year I feel a growing stillness in myself…” I felt a strong connection to that phrase: a growing stillness. As an extravert who has to speak in order to know what she is thinking, I can talk up a storm any time of the year! A growing stillness would be a miracle for me. I thought, suppose I tried to be and speak or teach or write out of that growing stillness! Suppose I turned off the computer and the TV and the radio and my spinning brain and sat by the fire in quiet, enjoying the growing stillness.  I want to discover what kind of woman, and what kind of teaching or writing or speaking would emerge from that joy! - I would wait more (why am I talking . . . W-A-I-T ).
- I would wake later and later, sleeping 9 – 10 hours.
- I would engage with the water as I swim each morning without looking at the clock, swimming till I was done!
- I would walk my cocker spaniel, Sandy, each morning (bundle up, it is cold out there!).
- I would write my e-mails in Word and paste them into an email, so I can read them before they go off!
Wake, wait, water, walk, write. Out of a growing stillness. And you? By Darlene Goetzman,on November 2nd,2011 I find that sometimes Learning Needs and Resource Assessment (LNRA) work can be limited to sending some questions to the people coming to a course/learning event. In my experience,it’s helpful to see LNRA work in phases. How does this strike you? Here is a chart that depicts my thoughts on this topic. What would you add,delete,change,or suggest I reconsider? What do you find in your work? Phases &Strategies of a Learning Needs and Resource Assessment Phase One Intervention/Design: There’s a problem or vision for which you’ve been asked to design training | Phase Two Piloted Design Ready to be Launched | Phase Three During Learning Event | Phase Four Following Learning Event | Cycles of: Cycles of piloting (see Phase Three);suggest a minimum of two cycles. Ultimately resulting in a design led by teacher that “teaches” what is needed and promised. | ASK:Connecting with the real people who will be coming to your workshop/course through email,phone and other mediums (read Tips and Tools May 2011). What else might you need to do (STUDY,OBSERVE) in order to feel confident that your design and teaching are engaging,immediate (useful) and relevant for this specific group? Do you have examples in mind that are directly related to the learners’ lived experience? If not,what will you? | The type and quality of dialogue that is ideally present in a learning event using the Dialogue Education approach,means that throughout the course you and the learners will be asking,studying and observing for what needs to be modified,said,seen or otherwise to increase the learning for you and the learners. The teacher is accountable for designing and teaching in ways that ensure the Achievement-based objectives are met. The learners are responsible for their learning. | In this Phase,we are using the feedback from the learners,our assessment of the course,and feedback from whoever (or whatever) has been put into place to determine what changes are actually happening back at work or at home.* ** |
*When data is identified ahead of time (indicators of learning) and gathered during the event,this information can be evaluated for level of effectiveness,quality,etc. and taken into account for any needed changes in the design. **One time in-services or events in an ideal world are tied to the overall objectives of the organization,business,department,or program (for example:professional development),and are assessed and evaluated as it relates to the whole initiative. By JANE VELLA,on October 20th,2011 My newest passion about adult learning is depth. Whence depth? How can we be sure we are inviting and challenging learners to go deep! I want learners to not only learn the surface facts and figures,but to imagine implications,to reconstruct a concept to fit a context,to apply a skill and look at that application critically –to go deep. I realize in my own life that depth has come over time,the long mulling over a concept sitting by the fire with a glass of wine;the quiet,searching conversation by the same fire with a good friend –and the same wine;the writing of another book about the same topic! Often in a course or short session,such delicious time is rare. How about inviting and challenging learners to “go deep”by an intentional sequence of depth in the implementation or “applying”part of a learning task? Suppose we designed a movement from reviewing the input concepts and skills to questioning them to connecting them to other relevant concepts and skills to projecting an application in a demanding context,to naming implications with particular groups… We do some of that in the four I’s:inductive work,connecting,anchoring;
Input:content,adding new facts and skills;Implementation,applying the content;and Integration,projecting the new knowledge away from the course or workshop. How can we go deeper in our designing so learners get a chance to celebrate a depth of learning? By Joan Dempsey,on June 28th,2011  When I was a kid, about twelve years old, I went to a YMCA special weekend called Inward Bound (the link isn’t to the same program, but this one is close, and looks great!). It was for kids all over the state and we learned about ourselves, about how we’re all different, and got some great communication tools. One I remember distinctly was called “The Haircut” and it was an entrée into sharing critical feedback with someone else. For example, if I wanted to tell Bruce that what he said about me to Julie hurt my feelings, I’d approach Bruce and say “I’d like to give you a haircut.” Because he’d been trained just like I had, he knew then that his job was to simply listen with an open heart before responding.
It was great practice for how to talk with people about difficult things, and it’s a lesson that’s served me well ever since (36 years). In part I think the experience stands out so strongly because it was so unique. Today, enter a new book for educators: Educating from the Heart: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Transforming Education, edited by Aostre N. Johnson &Marilyn Webb Neabley. Would that all my teachers had this book, not only when I was young, but in every class I’ve ever attended! Educating from the Heart “supports the belief that heart and spirit are intertwined with mind and intellect, and that inner peace, wisdom, compassion, and conscience can be developed together with academic content and skill.” According to the publisher, the book is “based on the questions: ‘What does it mean to educate from the heart? What does it mean to educate with spirit?’ It offers both theoretical overviews and practical approaches for educators, academics, education students and parents who are interested in transforming schools. Well-respected voices in the field of education provide a framework that includes recent findings from the world of neuroscience, as well as fresh perspectives about traditional wisdom. Practicing educators describe methods directly applicable in classrooms. In addition, many chapters emphasize the importance of educators attending to their own inner lives. The book encourages reinvigorating approaches to learning and teaching that can easily be integrated into both public and private K-12 school classrooms, with many ideas also applicable to higher education. It supports an educational system based on the beliefs that heart and spirit are intertwined with mind and intellect, and that inner peace, wisdom, compassion, and conscience can be developed together with academic content and skills.” Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? And what’s even better is that our own Peter Perkins, GLP co-owner and partner, wrote a chapter in this book entitled Paying Attention to the Whole Self, in which he shares, among other things, his first encounter with a holistic wellness experience “in the mountains of Old Snowmass.” He tells us that what he learned about himself and everyone else during this encounter “planted a persistent question” in his mind. “The persistent question,” he writes, “looks mostly like this: If holistic wellness is about caring for the whole person, and if as human beings we are of many dimensions which help us to survive, to be healthy, and potentially to thrive, then what are these essential dimensions,and shouldn’t everyone – parents and friends of youth, as well as professional teachers, counselors, and service providers – know how to tap into them?” I’d answer that with a resounding YES, as does everyone else who’s contributed to this welcome book. You’ll have to check it out to learn more! For more on this subject, take a look at Talk About Wellness. What have you done in your work that stresses the heart and spirit? Do share! By Joan Dempsey,on June 13th,2011  The Diamond of Participation,Chris Corrigan It had been a grueling day and we were winding down for the night. This was our semi-annual Global Learning Partners business retreat and most of the core team was gathered together for more than three intensive days of work. I admit I was a little cranky,despite the gorgeous setting on the shores of Shelter Harbor in Westerly,Rhode Island. We’d spent the day in cognitive mode and had really haggled over a lot of the details about where to take our business in the next three years. I had a headache. “Why is it,” I asked,trying to sound genuinely curious,rather than annoyed,“that we’re in a room full of master Dialogue Educators and we’ve just had an un-dialogue day?” I went on a bit,wondering why no one had used the 8-Steps of Design to plan our time,why we’d spent so much time hashing things out in the large group rather than engaging in fun learning tasks. Being the kind people they are,no one rolled their eyes or snapped a pithy response,and that should have been my first clue that the principles and practices of Dialogue Education had never been absent from the meeting. “Actually,” said Peter Perkins,“we have been practicing dialogue.” He and the rest of the team patiently listed the principles and practices that had been at work for us throughout the day: respect,safety,teamwork,engagement,relevance,and sound relationships that let us get through the “groan zone” of making some tough decisions. We listened carefully to each other,checked our assumptions (often times more than once),and treated each other with a great deal of respect. “Dialogue isn’t always easy,” someone said,“but that doesn’t mean the dialogue isn’t working.” It was one of those revelatory moments. My headache dissipated. I thanked my colleagues and friends. It was,in short,a day of exceptional dialogue. We learned a lot about each other,made amazing progress in planning GLP’s future,and spent that evening celebrating with Jane Vella for her birthday – lots of laughter,reflection,and good cheer. All the result of good dialogue!
By JANE VELLA,on May 18th,2011 This short story will tell you a great deal about Global Learning PARTNERS. The partners and staff are having their summer meeting in Rhode Island at Valerie Uccellani’s parents’home in early June. I received a sweet invitation to join them –not for the meeting –but for the good fellowship,good food,ocean air and rocking chair porch so they can celebrate my June birthday with me. Enclosed in the invitation was a round trip air ticket and a reservation for nights at a nearby Ocean Inn. Friends who know me are not surprised that the invitation brought me to tears –of joy,of gratitude of deep affection for these PARTNERS. By Joan Dempsey,on May 3rd,2011  The Dome at MIT In my last blog post I wrote about our evolving educational systems and one of the things I mentioned was MIT’s Open Course Ware program and how great it is that they give away their courses for free. GLP’s astute marketing manager,Debra Cagwin,took some time to check out their offerings and uncovered their Guidelines on Learning that Inform Teaching. Gee,we thought,these guidelines sound an awful lot like Dialogue Education,don’t they? So I checked out this publication,which is essentially a list of resources for teachers,a treasure trove of research and articles about the following topics: - Engaging students in learning
- Contextualizing students’ learning experiences
- Creating an inclusive learning and teaching experience
- Designing an engaging,contextualized and inclusive curriculum
- Teaching an engaging,contextualized and inclusive curriculum
Here’s a sample of the kind of thing you’ll find in this publication: Analysis of the literature suggests that students must do more than just listen:they must read,write,discuss,or be engaged in solving problems. Most important,to be actively involved,students must engage in higher order thinking tasks such as analysis,synthesis,and evaluation. Bonwell,C. &Eison,J.,Active Learning:Creating Excitement in the Classroom,ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education,Washington,D.C. (1991). http://ericae.net/db/edo/ED340272.htm or http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/91-9dig.htm Are we right? Doesn’t this sound like what we Dialogue Educators use every day in our learning environments? Or how about this? There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learn in new ways that do not come so easily. Chickering,A. &Gamson,Z.,“Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” AAHE Bulletin,vol. 39,no. 7,p. 6 (1987). http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/fall1987.pdf Lest you think we’re affiliated with MIT,we’re not (but we could be . . . “Hey,MIT,how about hiring some great Dialogue Educators?!”). We’re just spreading the good word about this terrific list of resources. We hope they help inform your work with Dialogue Education. Check out the complete guidelines here:http://web.mit.edu/tll/learning-guidelines-2008.pdf. Find anything you like? | Upcoming CoursesVisit our website for information about 2011 courses. |
